Dante alighieri divine comedy best excerpts. Pustovit A.V. History of European culture. Dante Alighieri. The Divine Comedy. (fragments). XIII. Russian dantiene pages

Exact date of birth Dante Alighieri unknown. However, there is evidence that on May 26, 1265, he was baptized in Florence under the name Durante.

Dante is an Italian poet, one of the founders of the literary Italian language. In his work, the poet repeatedly raised issues of morality and faith in God.

AiF.ru recalls one of the most famous works of Dante Alighieri - "The Divine Comedy", which deals with the mortal essence of man, as well as the afterlife. Dante subtly and skillfully describes hell, where eternally condemned sinners go, purgatory, where they atone for their sins, and paradise, the abode of the blessed.

9 circles of hell in the "Divine Comedy"

According to Dante Alighieri, just before entering hell, you can meet people who have led a boring life - they have done neither evil nor good.

1 circle

The first circle of hell is called Limbo. His guardian is the one who transports the souls of the dead across the river Styx. In the first circle of hell, babies who have not been baptized and virtuous non-Christians experience torment. They are doomed to eternal suffering of silent sorrow.

2 circle

The second circle of hell is guarded by the intractable judge of the damned. Passionate lovers and adulterers in this circle of hell are punished with twisting and tormenting by a storm.

3 circle

- the guardian of the third circle, in which gluttons, gluttons and gourmets live. All of them are punished by rotting and decay under the scorching sun and pouring rain.

4 circle

Rules in the fourth circle, where misers, greedy and wasteful individuals who are unable to make reasonable spending fall. Punishment by them is an eternal dispute when confronted with each other.

5 circle

The fifth circle represents a gloomy and gloomy place guarded by the son of the god of war Ares -. To get to the fifth circle of hell, you need to be very angry, lazy or dull. Then the punishment will be an eternal fight in the swamp of Styx.

6 circle

The sixth circle is the Walls of the city, guarded by furies - grumpy, cruel and very evil women. They mock heretics and false teachers, whose punishment is eternal existence in the form of ghosts in red-hot graves.

7 circle

The seventh circle of hell, guarded, is for those who committed violence.

The circle is divided into three zones:

• First belt is called Flageton. Those who have committed violence against their neighbor, their material values ​​and property, fall into it. These are tyrants, robbers and robbers. They all boil in a moat of red-hot blood, and centaurs shoot at those who emerge.
• Second belt- Forest of suicides. There are suicides in it, as well as those who senselessly squandered their fortune - gamblers and spendthrifts. Spenders are tortured by hounds, and unfortunate suicides are torn to shreds by Harpies.
• Third belt— Combustible sands. Blasphemers who have committed violence against deities and sodomites are here. The punishment is staying in an absolutely barren desert, the sky of which drips on the heads of the unfortunate with fiery rain.

8 circle

The eighth circle of hell consists of ten ditches. The circle itself is called Evil Slits, or Evil Slits.

The guardian is a giant with six arms, six legs and wings. In the Evil Cracks, deceivers bear their hard fate.

9 circle

The ninth circle of hell is the Ice Lake Cocytus. This circle is guarded by stern guardians-giants named , son and - Antey, half-bull, half-snake - and - guard of the road to purgatory. This circle has four belts - the Belt of Cain, the Belt of Antenor, the Belt of Tolomei, the Belt of Giudecca.

Judas is languishing in this circle, and. In addition to them, traitors are also doomed to fall into this circle - the motherland, relatives, relatives, friends. All of them are frozen in the ice up to their necks and experience eternal torment in the cold.

Dante is depicted holding a copy of The Divine Comedy next to the entrance to Hell, the seven terraces of the Mount of Purgatory, the city of Florence, and the spheres of Heaven above in a fresco by Domenico di Michelino. Photo: commons.wikimedia.org

Charon- in Greek mythology, the carrier of the souls of the dead across the river Styx (Acheron). Son of Erebus and Nyukta.

Minos- Dante has a demon with a snake tail, wrapping around the newly arrived soul and indicating the circle of hell into which the soul is to descend.

Cerberus- in Greek mythology, the offspring of Typhon and Echidna, a three-headed dog with a poisonous mixture flowing from its mouths. Guards the exit from the realm of the dead Hades, preventing the dead from returning to the world of the living. The creature was defeated by Hercules in one of his labors.

Plutus- an animal-like demon guarding access to the fourth circle of Hell, where miserly and spendthrifts are executed.

Phlegius- in ancient Greek mythology, the son of Ares - the god of war - and Chris. Phlegius burned the temple of the god Apollo and, as punishment for this, was killed by his arrows. In the underworld, he was condemned to eternal punishment - to sit under a rock, ready to collapse every minute.

“Charon transports souls across the river Styx” (Litovchenko A.D., 1861). A photo:

Briareus- in Greek mythology, the son of the sky god Uranus and the goddess of the earth Gaia. A monstrous creature with 50 heads and 100 arms.

Lucifer- a fallen angel, identified with the Devil.

Brutus Mark Junius- in ancient Rome led (together with Cassius) a conspiracy in 44 BC. e. against Julius Caesar. According to legend, he was one of the first to stab him with a dagger.

Cassius Gaius Longinus The assassin of Julius Caesar, organized an attempt on his life.

Dante Alighieri 1
THE DIVINE COMEDY. HELL
(fragments)
SONG ONE

Having passed half of earthly life,
I found myself in a dark forest
Having lost the right path in the darkness of the valley.

4 What was he, oh, how I will pronounce,
That wild forest, dense and threatening,
Whose old horror I carry in my memory!

7 He is so bitter that death is almost sweeter.
But, having found good in it forever,
I will tell about everything that I saw in this more often.

10 I do not remember myself how I entered there,
So the dream entangled me with lies,
When I lost my way.

13 But, having approached the foot of the hill,
Which closed this valley,
Constricting my heart with horror and trembling,

16 I saw as soon as I opened my eyes,
That the light of the planet, guiding everywhere,
Already descended on the shoulders of the mountains.

19 Then I sighed more freely
And the soul overcame a long fear,
Exhausted by a hopeless night.

22 And as if he who, breathing heavily,
Coming to the shore from the abyss of foam,
Looks back, where the waves are beating, frightening,

25 So is my spirit, fleeing and troubled,
Turned back, looking down the path,
Leading everyone to the predicted death.

28 When I let my body rest,
I went up and I had support
In the foot, pressing on the earthly chest.

31 And behold, at the bottom of a steep slope,
Agile and curly lynx,
All in bright spots of a motley pattern.

34 She, circling, blocked the heights for me,
And I'm not just on the steepness of the dangerous
He thought of escaping on his way back.

37 It was an early hour, and the sun was in the clear firmament
Accompanied by the same stars again
What is the first time when their host is beautiful

40 Divine moved Love.
Trusting the hour and the happy time,
The blood in the heart no longer sank so

43 At the sight of a beast with whimsical hair;
But, again, he is embarrassed by horror,
A lion with uplifted mane stepped forward.

46 He seemed to be stepping on me,
Growling furiously from hunger
And the very air is numb with fear.

49 And with him a she-wolf, whose thin body,
It seemed that he carried all the greed in himself;
Many souls mourned because of her.

52 I was bound by such a heavy oppression
Before her dreadful gaze,
That I lost my hope for heights.

55 And, like a miser who hoarded treasure after treasure,
When the time of loss approaches,
Mourns and cries for past joys,

58 So was I also in confusion,
Step by step, the irrepressible she-wolf
Cramped there, where the rays are silent.

61 While to the valley I overthrew the dark,
A man appeared before me.
From a long silence, as if languid.

64 Seeing him in the midst of that wilderness,
“Save me,” I called out in a dull voice, “
Be a ghost, be a living person!”

67 He answered: “Not a man; I was him;
I bring down my family from the Lombards,
And Mantua was their sweet land.

70 Sub Julio is born, though late in the year,
I lived in Rome under the August canopy,
When people honored idols.

73 I was a poet and entrusted with song,
How the son of Anchises sailed into the sunset
From proud Troy, betrayed by burning.

76 But why are you hurrying back to the flour?
That you do not ascend to the illumined height,
The beginning and cause of all joys?

79 “So you are Virgil, you are a bottomless spring,
Where did the songs of the world flow from? —

I replied, bowing my face in embarrassment. —136
82 O honor and light of all the singers of the earth,
Respect love and tireless work,
That they helped me to delve into your scroll!

85 You are my teacher, my favorite example;
Only you alone handed me a legacy
Beautiful style, exalted everywhere.

CANTO THREE

I'm taking you to the outcast villages.
I take away through the age-old groan.
I take you to the lost generations.

4 My architect was truly inspired:
I am the highest power, the fullness of omniscience
And created by the first love.

7 Ancient me only eternal creatures,
And with eternity I will be on a par,
Incoming, leave hope.

10 I, having read above the entrance, on high,
Such signs of gloomy color,
Said, "Master, their meaning is terrible to me."

13 He, being perspicacious, answered this:
“Here it is necessary that the soul be firm;
Here fear should not give advice.

16 I promised that we would come there,
Where can you see the shadows languishing
Losing the light of reason forever.”

19 Giving me your hand, so that I would know no doubt,
And, turning to me a calm face,
He led me into a mysterious hallway.

22 There are sighs, weeping and frenzied screams
In the starless darkness were so great
That at first I drooped in tears.

25 Scraps of all dialects, wild murmuring,
Words in which pain, and anger, and fear,
Splashing of hands, and complaints, and cries

28 Merged into a rumble, without time, in centuries,
Spinning in the mist unillumined,
Like a stormy whirlwind of indignant dust.

31 And I, with my head constrained by terror,
“Whose scream is this? I hardly dared to ask. —
What crowd, defeated by suffering?

34 And the leader answered: “That is a woeful fate
Those pitiful souls that lived without knowing
Neither the glory nor the shame of mortal deeds.

37 And with them a bad flock of angels,
That, without rising, was and is not true
Almighty, observing the middle.

40 They were overthrown by the sky, unable to bear the spot;
And the abyss of Hell does not accept them,
Otherwise, guilt would have risen up.”

43 And I: “Master, what torments them so
And compels such complaints?
And he: “The answer is short-lived.

46 And the hour of death is unattainable for them,
And this life is so unbearable
That everything else would be easier for them.

49 Their memory on earth is irrevocable;
Judgment and mercy departed from them.
They are not worth the words: look - and by!

Translation by M. Lozinsky

A striking example of Christian art is the Divine Comedy by the great Italian poet Dante Alighieri. First, the work is characterized by numerical symbolism. “Above her wonderful, almost unbelievable design, the magic of numbers shines, originating from the Pythagoreans ... Numbers 3 and 10 are given a special meaning ...” (Dzhivelegov A. K. Dante Alighieri. Life and work. M., 1946. P. 290 -291). The poem consists of three parts - "Hell", "Purgatory" and "Paradise"; each of them has 33 songs, 99 in total, along with an introductory song - 100. One hundred is ten squared, and ten, according to the concepts of the Middle Ages, inherited from antiquity) is an image of perfection. The stanza and rhyme are subordinated to the triple articulation - the famous Dante's terzas. Tertsina - a stanza consisting of three lines; the first line in it rhymes with the third, and the second, middle line rhymes with the first and third lines of the next terza. Thus, the lines rhyme in threes. All this is not accidental: it is known what place in the symbolism of Christianity occupies the trinity (trinity). Suffice it to mention the Trinity. A. Pushkin called Dante's work "a triple poem." Not only the three, but also the nine (three squared) plays a special role in the structure of the poem: Hell consists of nine circles, the Mount of Purgatory - of seven steps. Paradise consists of ten heavens.

Secondly, all the details of the presentation are symbolic. The first song of “Hell” tells how, in the middle of his life, that is, at the age of 35 (“The days of a man’s life on earth are 70 years,” the Bible says), the poet found himself in a dark and terrible forest. The path from the gloomy valley to the illumined height was blocked by three animals - a lynx, a lion and a she-wolf. The ancient Roman poet Virgil, the author of the Aeneid, came to his aid. Virgil leads Dante through Hell and Purgatory; on the threshold of Paradise, he is met by his dead beloved, Beatrice. All these are symbols: a dark dense forest - life's complications and delusions of a person; beasts of prey are mortal sins. The lynx is a symbol of voluptuousness, the lion is pride, the she-wolf is greed (covetousness). Virgil is the human mind, Beatrice is the divine Love, light is God.

The meaning of the poem is the moral life of a person: reason saves him from sins and delusions, and love for God gives eternal bliss. On the way to moral rebirth, a person goes through the consciousness of his sinfulness (hell), purification (purgatory) and ascension to God. This is one of the possible interpretations of the work (Jivelegov A. K. Dante Alighieri. Life and work. M., 1946. S. 290-293).

In the XVIII century. the Parisian philologist Professor de Clairefon compared Dante's poem with a Gothic cathedral (Asoyan A. A. “Honor the highest poet ...”. The fate of Dante's “Divine Comedy” in Russia. M., 1990. P. 9). Indeed, both the architecture of the cathedral (its aspiration to the sky, the cruciformity of its plan, three portals), and Dante's poem are symbolic. Both the cathedral and the poem are a kind of “encyclopedia” of medieval knowledge, an artistic model of the entire universe as a whole, as it was drawn by a person of that era.

1 Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) - Italian poet, creator of the Italian literary language. The central work in his heritage is the Divine Comedy, an allegory of the moral life of man, sin and redemption, and at the same time a scientific encyclopedia of the Middle Ages.

Hell Song One
1
Having passed half of earthly life,
I found myself in a dark forest
Having lost the right path in the darkness of the valley.
4
What was he, oh, how to pronounce,
That wild forest, dense and threatening,
Whose old horror I carry in my memory!
7
He is so bitter that death is almost sweeter.
But, having found good in it forever,
I will tell about everything that I saw in this more often.
10
I don't remember how I got in there
So the dream entangled me with lies,
When I lost my way.
13
But approaching the foot of the hill, *
Which closed this valley,
Constricting my heart with horror and trembling,
16
I saw, as soon as I raised my eyes,
That the light of the planet, * guiding everywhere,
Already descended on the shoulders of the mountains.
19
Then sigh more freely
And the soul overcame a long fear,
Exhausted by a hopeless night.
22
And like the one who, breathing heavily,
Coming to the shore from the abyss of foam,
Looks back, where the waves are beating, frightening,
25
So is my spirit, running and confused,
Turned back, looking down the path,
Leading everyone to the predicted death.
28
When I let my body rest
I went up and I had support
In the foot, pressing on the earthly chest.
31
And now, at the bottom of a steep slope,
Agile and curly lynx,
All in bright spots of a motley pattern.
34
She, circling, blocked the heights for me,
And I'm not just on the steepness of the dangerous
He thought of escaping on his way back.
37
It was an early hour, and the sun was in the clear firmament
Accompanied by the same stars again, *
What is the first time when their host is beautiful
40
Divine moved Love.
Trusting the hour and the happy time,
The blood in the heart no longer sank so
43
At the sight of a beast with whimsical hair;
But, again, he is embarrassed by horror,
A lion with uplifted mane stepped forward.
46
He stepped on me,
Growling furiously from hunger
And the very air is numb with fear.
49
And with him a she-wolf, whose thin body,
It seemed that he carried all the greed in himself;
Many souls mourned because of her.
52
I was bound by such a heavy oppression,
Before her dreadful gaze,
That I lost my hope for heights.
55
And like a miser, hoarding treasure after treasure,
When the time of loss approaches,
Mourns and cries for past joys,
58
So I was also confused,
Step by step, the irrepressible she-wolf
Cramped there, where the rays are silent. *
61
While to the valley I overthrew the dark,
Some husband * appeared before me,
From a long silence, as if languid.
64
Seeing him in the middle of that desert:
“Save me,” I called out in a sad voice, “
Be a ghost, be a living person!”
67
He answered: “Not a man; I was him;
I bring down my family from the Lombards,
And Mantua* was their sweet land.
70
Sub Julio is born, * even in the late year,
I lived in Rome under the August canopy, *
When people honored idols.
73
I was a poet and entrusted with hymns,
How the son of Anchises * sailed into the sunset
From proud Troy, betrayed by burning.
76
But why are you hurrying back to flour?
That you do not ascend to the illumined height,
The beginning and cause of all joys?
79
“So you are Virgil, you are a bottomless spring,
Where did the songs of the world flow from? —
I replied, bowing my face in embarrassment. —
82
O honor and light of all the singers of the earth,
Respect love and tireless work,
That they helped me to delve into your scroll!
85
You are my teacher, my favorite example;
Only you alone handed me a legacy
Beautiful style, exalted everywhere.
88
Look how this beast has embarrassed me!
O prophetic man, come to my aid,
I tremble to my innermost veins!”
91
"You must choose a new path, * -
He answered me, seeing my fear, -
And do not return to the wild log;
94
She-wolf, from which you are in tears,
He drives all those ascending, oppressing,
And kills in its paths;
97
She's so mean and mean
That insatiably will be hungry,
After eating, the alcohol is even stronger.
100
Happened to every creature
She will seduce many, but glorious
The Dog will descend* and it will end.
103
Not dust of the earth and not two-alloy metal, *
And he will taste honor, love and wisdom,
Between felt and felt * sovereign.
106
Italy, he will be a faithful shield,
The one for whom Camille died,
And Euryalus, and Turn, and Nis is killed. *
109
The she-wolf runs wherever she strives,
Having overtaken her, he will imprison her in Hell,
From where envy lured the predator.
112
And I'll tell you in my turn:
Follow me and into the eternal villages
From these places I will bring you
115
And you will hear the screams of madness
And the ancient spirits that live there,
For a new death, vain prayers; *
118
Then you will see those who are strangers to sorrows
Among the fire, in the hope of joining
Someday to blessed tribes.
121
But if you want to fly higher
The most worthy soul* is waiting for you:
You will go with her, and we must say goodbye;
124
The king of the heights, forbidding entry
To my city, the enemy of his charter,
Those who go with me do not let in.
127
He is the king everywhere, but there is his power;
There is his city, and there is his throne;
Blessed is the one to whom this glory is revealed!”
130
“O my poet,” I spoke to him, “
I pray to the Creator, whose truth you did not know:
So that I leave evil and death,
133
Show me the path you told me
Give me the gates of Petrov* to see the light
And those who betrayed their souls to eternal torment.
136
He moved and I followed him.
…

The Divine Comedy. An excerpt from a poem

Translation by V. Bryusov

Canto One

On the halfway of earthly wandering

I saw myself in a deaf forest,

Then I strayed from the straight path.

Oh, how hard it is to describe in verse

That dark forest so wild and deep

That I tremble at the thought of only him!

Hardly more terrible is the moment of near-death.

But, since I found good in the forest,

I'll tell you what the eye saw there before.

Do not remember me how I went down to the valley:

As if I was sleepy, I was walking on the road,

When I went off the true path.

But at last I came to the foot

The hill where the forest ended,

Who filled my heart with trembling,

And looked up to the illumined heights,

Already dressed in the light of that luminary,

Whose beam leads from everywhere to space.

The radiance humbled my horror,

That in the lake of the soul he stood all night,

While despair tormented me.

Like a man who, gasping for breath, got up

On the shore, emerging from the depths of the sea,

Looks back and sees a formidable shaft, -

And so my spirit, leaving the bottom of the valley,

Still trembling, he looked back, where the darkness,

From where not a single one came out alive.

When the fatigue has passed,

I began to climb the gentle slope;

The supporting leg was the lowest.

And so, at the very first steps of the road, -

Spotted skins exposing the outfit,

Panther, light beast and swift,

Fearlessly meeting my stubborn gaze,

She stood in my way so menacingly,

That I wanted to run back more than once.

It was early and the sun was rising

With that host of stars your face on high,

As on that day, when Love began

For the first time moved their beauty.

I was invigorated by many things in adversity:

A panther's headdress that amuses a dream,

The hour of the day and the month, tenderest of all in the year, -

But was seized by the horror of the past

I, seeing a lion on a desert shoot.

Raising your head, languishing greedy,

It was as if he was striving for movement towards me,

And the air seemed to tremble before him.

The she-wolf followed the lion; all desires,

It seemed to be melting in its thinness,

She has brought suffering to many!

My chest was crushed under the weight.

Such imperious fear cast her glances!

I have lost hope again.

The miser who stubbornly collected treasures,

Losing them, and crying, and trembling,

Knowing no consolation in anything.

And I, at that hour, had the same appearance,

When, step by step, without compassion,

The beast drove me to where the day is silent.

I broke into the valley, where I knew wandering,

And suddenly someone appeared before me.

He seemed; to him in the wilderness of the forest,

“Oh, have pity on me! I yelled. -

Whoever it is, a shadow or an earthly man!

In response: “Not a man, but I was one.

My Lombard father gave birth to me,

And I bore the nickname of the Mantua.

Sub Julio, but late, lived in Rome

With good Augustus, I, in the age known,

What ghostly gods and false honors.

I was a poet; sung by me pious

Anchises son, who threw Ilion,

When the city of Troy was burned wonderful.

But why is your step reversed,

To the sorrows of all, and not to the beautiful mountains?

The path and the beginning of all blessings is this slope!

“Are you Virgil, the key in which

Takes the source of the river of great words? -

So I answered, with an embarrassed look.

“Oh, honor and beacon of all other singers!

Yes, it means to me love for you and zeal

Delve diligently into the meaning of your poems!

My teacher! my sample! creations

Yours gave me that good style,

With which I could gain approval.

Se is a beast, what drives me without roads!

Renowned sage! deliver me

You are strong: I am trembling and exhausted!

“In another way you must direct the step, -

He answered, seeing my face in tears, -

If you are ready to leave this wild land.

Beast, what makes you scream,

He does not tolerate another on his way,

And whoever resists, he perishes instantly.

He is of a temper so ferocious and evil,

That never satiates his stomach,

But, having satiated the hunger, he hungers more again.

Copulating, will attract a lot

He is still a beast, he will not come until

The dog that, in torment, will bite him.

Food for the Dog is not silver, not a field,

But wisdom, virtue and love,

And the edge from Feltro to Feltro will be a share.

Unfortunate Italy, he again

Save, for which girl Camilla,

Turnus, Euryalus and Nis shed blood.

Force will drive him through the hail

She-wolves and cast down to Hell itself:

Envy revived her from there.

But you must, - my eyes see it, -

follow me; i will be your driver

Through the kingdoms of eternity, and not back.

You will see the mournful groans of the monastery,

The suffering of ancient souls that wait in vain

So that death comes again as a deliverer!

And you will see those who live in flames

Happy, comforted by hope,

That they will enter the circle of the blessed.

If you yearn to ascend to them, towering, -

The soul will come more worthy than mine:

I will entrust you to her, parting.

That Lord that holds those edges,

He does not want me to be a counselor there:

After all, I was an enemy of his law.

He reigns everywhere: there are his chambers,

His throne, his imperishable light.

Blessed are those who are welcomed into this city!”

He moved, I followed him.

And I told him: “I beg you, poet,

In the name of a God you did not know!

So that I pass both those and bitter troubles,

Lead me to the realms you named

So that I stand at the gate, before Saint Peter,

And I matured the unfortunates whom you described!

Questions and tasks

1. What do you think, what meaning does Dante put in the word "comedy" in the title of his work?

2. Why does Virgil become Dante's guide to Hell?

3. Give a description of the image of the narrator.

4. What meaning does the poet put into the concept of "sin" and what human qualities does he consider "sinful"?

5. How does a person appear in Dante's poem?

6. Retell the episode from the poem that you liked the most, explain how the author's position is manifested in it.

7. Describe the composition and stanza of the poem.

8. Write an essay on the topic "The Strength and Weakness of Man in Western European Medieval Literature."